From a new faction being formed to Chris Jericho's unusual announcement, this week's edition of AEW Dynamite featured many contrasting moments.
The Wednesday Night Wars came to a temporary halt this week, as Dynamite aired on a Saturday, thanks to the NBA Playoffs. So it's not the most exciting news when a normal AEW episode is scheduled to air right in the middle of WWE's SummerSlam weekend. However, AEW still delivered mostly due to the ending of last night's episode.
How did NXT fare against AEW in terms of quality this week? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Here are the five biggest news stories from this week's episode of AEW Dynamite (August 22, 2020).
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#5: Chris Jericho announced a "Mimosa Mayhem Match" against Orange Cassidy at AEW All Out
After Orange Cassidy's victory against Chris Jericho on last week's edition of AEW Dynamite, The King of Sloth Style was set to take part in an in-ring interview with Tony Schiavone this week.
The Demo God interrupted this segment and congratulated Cassidy on the most important victory of his career. But as it is with all big feuds in Pro-Wrestling, there needs to be a rubber match if both competitors have earned one win over the other.
So the rubber match will take place at All Out, and Jericho challenged Cassidy to a Mimosa Mayhem Match, which is a one of a kind stipulation where an 80-gallon vat of champagne and orange juice will be present in the arena. The only way to win is via pinfall, submission, or by throwing your opponent into a giant mimosa cocktail.
Cassidy accepted this challenge, but he was immediately subjected to a beatdown at the hands of The Inner Circle, which ended with The King of Sloth Style being drenched in champagne.
#4: NWA Women's Champion Thunder Rosa challenged Hikaru Shida at AEW All Out
This week's AEW Dynamite was quite important for the promotion's Women's Division.
Ivelisse and Diamante won the AEW Women's Tag-Team Cup tournament after defeating The Nightmare Sisters (Brandi Rhodes and Allie). This was a sensible booking decision because Brandi has been facing the heat from AEW's fanbase recently.
Also, WCW's Madusa made a quick cameo as a presenter to the winners, thus continuing AEW's tradition of bringing back old names, even though she was barely noticeable last night.
But the biggest development as far as Hikaru Shida's title reign goes is in the form of Thunder Rosa, the NWA Women's World Champion, who will face the AEW Women's World Champion in an inter-promotional battle at All Out.
Rosa cut a fierce promo last night, and as a fan, this was an exciting development to witness on the road to All Out. Apart from Britt Baker and Hikaru Shida, AEW's female stars haven't exactly been the most entertaining aspect of the show every week. But despite some shortcomings, they seem to be moving in the right direction if this week's show was any indication.
#3: Eddie Kingston returned and formed a new faction with heel talent
On this week's AEW Dynamite, Jurassic Express teamed up with Natural Nightmares to face the team of Butcher and The Blade and The Lucha Bros.
The match itself wasn't the most memorable bout of the night. After all, AEW's tendencies to put on multi-man tag team matches have become frequent in recent times.
But towards the end, Pentagon and The Blade got into an argument, which allowed Jungle Boy to roll up The Blade for a pinfall victory last night.
This argument escalated further after the match was over, which is when Eddie Kingston came out to break things up. AEW fans may remember his TNT title match against Cody on Dynamite and his work on IMPACT Wrestling and ROH as well.
Kingston once again proved himself as a talent who can cut great promos. He brought up how Butcher and The Blade and Lucha Bros. are some of the greatest tag teams who have lost their way recently. And Kingston got them on the same page as they embraced each other.
That cheeky wink from Kingston to end this segment showed that he might have found a great way to come back on AEW TV, which is by forming a faction with the aforementioned teams on Dynamite.
#2: MJF's lawyer drew out a contract to ban Jon Moxley's "Paradigm Shift" move at AEW All Out
Although Jon Moxley and MJF weren't featured to a great extent on this week's AEW Dynamite, they still managed to create a potentially interesting scenario with an unusual plot point.
Moxley cut a great promo and highlighted how MJF doesn't need to bring out his faults, as he already has a wife, Renee Young, who has a long list of Moxley's shortcomings as a human being.
This was also a subtle nod to Renee Young's status in the world of Pro-Wrestling, who has just reportedly parted ways with WWE.
On the other end of the spectrum, MJF was involved in a silly backstage segment, where he showed off some acting chops and nearly brought himself to tears over how Moxley hurt him last week.
MJF's lawyer cut a great promo and proceeded to explain that Jon Moxley's Paradigm Shift is a lethal maneuver that needs to be banned from AEW. And as far as MJF vs. Moxley goes, the lawyer threatened to sue Jon Moxley if he didn't sign the contract to ban the move at All Out.
#1: Brodie Lee became the new TNT Champion as Dark Order destroyed The Nightmare Family
Perhaps the biggest news story from last night's AEW Dynamite has to be the fact that Brodie Lee just became the new TNT Champion.
Not a lot of AEW fans were expecting Cody to drop that title at this stage. However, Brodie Lee didn't just exceed expectations by winning the TNT title, but the match itself was one-sided as Cody had little to no offense throughout the bout.
It was reminiscent of Brock Lesnar and John Cena's bout from SummerSlam 2014 in a way, and after the match, Cody had to be stretchered out of the ring.
The Dark Order hasn't been the most successful faction from AEW, but this week, they truly established themselves as a legitimate threat. Arn Anderson, Dustin Rhodes, QT Marshall, and Brandi Rhodes were all laid to waste at the end of this episode.
Yes, it was Anna Jay from the Dark Order who finally earned a purpose by beating up Brandi.
Road Warrior Animal appeared on Sportskeeda's UnSKripted show recently and stated that Cody needed a strong heel to solidify his own position as a babyface. After this episode, it looks like Cody may have finally found a great antagonist in the form of Brodie Lee.
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